Kansas Water Science Center
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Discovery of Chlorinated Degradates of Cyanazine in Minnesota Ground WaterBy E.M. Thurman AbstractTo investigate the movement of chlorinated cyanazine degradates to ground water, 34 water samples were collected from shallow wells in central Minnesota from 1999 to 2001 and were analyzed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Minnesota was chosen because of its extensive use of cyanazine on corn over the past decade (~1 million kilograms annually). The chemical results show that cyanazine, cyanazine amide, and deethylcyanazine acid (first report) in 33 percent of the samples, and didealkylatrazine (first report) in 79 percent of the samples. The data suggest that cyanazine, now removed from the market for corn, may persist as degradates in ground water and is field evidence of an earlier hypothesis of Meyer (1994) on the degradation pathway of cyanazine through cyanazine acid or deethylcyanazine acid to deisopropylatrazine. However, because atrazine and deethylatrazine also occur in these samples, deisopropylatrazine and didealkylatrazine may have at least two sources, atrazine and cyanazine. Meyer, Michael T., 1994, Geochemistry of cyanazine and its metabolites—indicators
of contaminant transport in surface water of the Midwestern United States: University
of Kansas, Department of Geology, Ph.D. Thesis, 364 p. Thurman, E.M., 2003, Discovery of chlorinated degradates of cyanazine in Minnesota ground water [abs.], in Proceedings of 2003 Spring Specialty Conference on Agricultural Hydrology and Water Quality, May 12-14, 2003, Kansas City, Missouri: Middleburg, Virginia, American Water Resources Association, AWRA Technical Publication Series No. TPS-03-1, compact disc. Additional information about the Organic Geochemistry Research Laboratory can be found at:
For additional information contact: Betty Scribner |
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: /pubs/abstracts/awra.tps031-emt.html
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The USGS has collected hydrologic information in Kansas since 1895 with the first USGS Cooperative
Water Program funding agreement for 6 streamflow gages with the Kansas Water Board. USGS collects streamflow
and gage-height data; reservoir content; water-quality and water-quantity data; suspended-sediment data;
and groundwater levels. Hydrologic studies are conducted on national, regional, statewide, and local levels.
The USGS in Kansas works cooperatively with 31 Federal, State, and local agencies, such as the Kansas Water Office, the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers, and the City of Wichita